WV MOLASSES FESTIVAL STRETCHES OUT SUPPLY OF HOMEMADE SWEETENER

(10/05/2015)

At this year's West Virginia Molasses Festival, volunteers made and sold pint-sized jars to the public — in an effort to have something for everyone. A pile of pressed sorghum stalks grows during the molasses making process. The stalks are put through the press (right) to remove the sweet liquid inside. The liquid is then filtered to the molasses pan (in background) where it is thickened and cooked. Experienced molasses makers know the liquid is ready to be bottled when it forms long, thick strings of syrup. Long before there was ever a festival, Gene Laughlin watched his relatives and neighbors make molasses every fall. Kenny Arnold's dad would've been stunned — and baffled — to see his son, carefully pouring piping hot, homemade molasses into tiny, two-cup jars over the weekend. "When we made it at home, Dad sold it for $3 a gallon," Arnold said, carefully wiping a few drops from one jar before picking up the next. "Nobody'd want to buy a pint or a quart back then, 'cause when he was a kid, they didn't buy sugar. Everybody used molasses to sweeten with, so he would sell it by the gallon." At the 48th annual West Virginia Molasses Festival last weekend, plenty of people would've bought a gallon or more — if there'd been enough to sell ... See   W.Va. Molasses Festival stretches out supply of the homemade sweetener   By Maria Young for the Gazette-Mail

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